Your Guide to Business, Degrees, and Careers

Welcome to Business Research Guide. Our focus is on providing expert reviews and insight into technologies, products and services, and career and education options. We hope you find the information we provide to be useful. Read on for more information about the key areas we cover.

Quality Information About Degree Choices

As with most career options, getting a quality education is often the first step towards success. In today’s competitive high-tech global business marketplace, earning a business degree can lead to a high return on investment with a wide range of in-demand career opportunities. Particularly at the graduate level, business-related degrees are among the most popular and versatile fields of study at universities around the world today. Many students choose business as their major because the coursework touches on virtually every aspect of modern human society to build strong communication, analytical, leadership, decision-making, problem solving, and technical skills that can be applied to any industry of our economy. At Business Research Guide, our mission is to share our expert insights about the career and education options available in the diverse business world!

Whether you decide to specialize in accounting, human resources, finance, marketing, management, international business, or any other discipline, the curriculum for your business degree will provide a well-rounded interdisciplinary education that covers the crucial elements of what makes businesses function effectively. Since over one million college graduates enter the U.S. workforce annually, employers’ are now specifically seeking out job candidates with knowledge from a results-oriented business education and real-life internship experiences in the business world.

Choosing a business major could be the biggest commitment of your life over the course of four or more years of study, so do you have what it takes to succeed in business school? With business degrees being available at the associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degree levels in business administration with an array of specializations, many students wonder how much schooling is needed to be successful in the dynamic business world. As in other fields, the higher levels of education typically correspond with the highest salary potential with graduate business programs unlocking leadership positions in management. Many students choose to earn a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree to receive an advance in the global marketplace and learn how to become more adaptable in an ever-evolving economy. In fact, 80% of employers reported that they plan to hire MBA graduates this year.

How to Find the Top Business Degree Programs

Once you have made the wise career decision to earn a business degree, you will need to sort through the numerous business schools available around the world to locate the ideal program that matches your individualized career interests and learning needs. First and foremost, the most essential indicator of quality to look for in prospective business programs is accreditation. Not only will attending an accredited school or program ensure that your courses meet the highest level of academic standards, but it will also make it easier for you to receive financial aid and land job offers after graduation. The best of the best business schools will have received full accreditation by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).

In order to find the top business degree programs nationwide that have a proven track record of preparing successful leaders, you should also look at various ranking systems that show the business schools with the highest achieving students. Bloomberg BusinessWeek magazine is a trusted resource for finding the best undergraduate schools of business around the United States. At the graduate level, the U.S. News and World Report offers multiple rankings that recognize the best graduate business schools, top business degree specializations, best part-time MBA programs, and top online graduate business programs. Within our pages, you will also find our own rankings for some of the top business degrees, including the Top 10 Best Master’s in IT Management degree programs.

For working business professionals who are juggling college courses with family and career commitments, you may also want to look for business degree programs that are offered in whole or in part online. Thanks to the advent of the Internet, college students today are no longer hindered by the need to relocate geographically or place their business career on the back burner to advance their education. Within interactive virtual classrooms that emphasize hands-on training and group discussions, online MBA programs are especially popular for obtaining the critical leadership skills needed to compete for managerial roles. Online business degrees also offer more flexible learning options so that you can complete your coursework in your own self-paced schedule and receive assistance 24/7.

If you are struggling to find the best business degree that will open the vast career opportunities that you are searching for from an AACSB-accredited school, then you have come to the right place! Check out some of our most popular resources on business-related degree programs.

Business Career Options

After completing one of the best degrees for a business career, you will have the training and the credentials needed to get your foot in the door in a wide range of in-demand careers. To just name a few, a business degree opens professional opportunities in the worlds of finance, accounting, entrepreneurial startups, information technology, management, and even education. Both growing and established companies are always looking for highly educated professionals with a business background to help their organizations run more smoothly. In fact, the overall employment rate for two-year MBA graduates hit 92% in 2014 with a median annual starting salary of $90,000 and an additional comp of $10,000.

With one of the most utilitarian degrees available in higher education, students majoring in business administration are becoming an employer’s dream come true in today’s struggling economy. As a result, there is a promising job outlook for business degree holders to find abundant career opportunities in nearly every facet of our marketplace. According to the Center of Education and the Workforce, the unemployment rate for recent business graduates is 7.4%, which is significantly lower than those majoring in architecture, engineering, humanities, and the arts. Since graduate degree holders have a jobless rate of just 4.4%, students are often best served by pursuing an MBA degree after gaining an undergraduate degree in another major.

As in any other field, it is essential that students decide which niche of the business world they want to get into to build a successful career. Being aware of the job opportunities available will help you to develop the appropriate skills that are needed for the career path you have chosen to pursue. Below we have listed some of the top in-demand jobs that can be a great fit for graduates who have achieved an accredited business degree and their salary potentials.

Accountant: From small businesses to massive Fortune 500 corporations, accountants are a crucial component of the business world to keep track of all the finances for an organization to improve profitability. By specializing a graduate degree in accounting and becoming a CPA, there is the potential to make an average of $63,550 each year in a field estimated to grow by 13% before 2022.

Chief Executive Officer: As a typical end goal for a business career, Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) are at the highest level of every business organization to run operations, make well-informed decisions, and build strong business models. Therefore, CEOs pull in one of the highest salaries among graduates with business degrees, with an average annual salary of $178,400. If you are aiming for this executive-leadership role, you may want to consider attending one of the ten schools with the most graduates as Fortune 500 CEOs.

Corporate and IT Training: In today’s knowledge economy, ongoing training is a key part of staying competitive. Online training has broadened the options for managers and trainers, while at the same time raising questions around the need to identify the most effective training options available for individuals and groups at any given time. Our editors sort through the training options to bring you the best corporate training options available in a variety of today’s in-demand categories.

Management Analyst: Often on a contractual basis, management analysts utilize their business degree to propose new ways to improve organization’s efficiency and provide advice to mangers on how to reduce costs for enhanced revenue. As employment of management analysts is growing faster than average at 19% before 2022, many business graduates are attracted to this career with average annual salary of $78,600.

Information Technology: As business solutions shift increasingly to hosted models, the role of IT is more important than ever. Not only does the business depend on IT for evaluation and judgement when it comes to new technology solutions, it also depends on them to be adept and effective at partner relationships, as more and more IT functions become outsourced to third party specialists. And more than ever, IT pros are expected to be security experts as well. IT security issues both internal and external must be well understood, anticipated, and prevented. And when catastrophe strikes, they must be in a position to recover complex systems quickly and effectively. Among the areas our editors are examining currently include Top IT Security Companies.

Operations Research Analyst: Named as the 2nd best business job by the U.S. News and World Report for graduates with business degrees, operations research analysts are high-level problem solvers who use advanced statistical techniques to help businesses operate more cost-effectively. With a median annual salary of $72,100, employment of operations research analysts is expected to skyrocket much faster than average by 27% before 2022.

Restaurant Manager: By specializing their business degree in hospitality management, many graduates decide to become restaurant or food service managers to assume responsibility for the daily operations of businesses that serve food and beverages. As population growth is expected to cause a greater demand in a field with a mean annual salary of $47,960, business students may want to become a restaurant manager to maintain a high quality of customer dining experience.

Overall, earning an undergraduate or graduate business degree from an accredited school may be critical to your ability to enhance your position in a wide range of career paths like these. Since these job options only scratch the surface of what is available in the versatile business world, we invite you to search through our site to find the latest information on in-demand careers that are essential in today’s businesses. If you have any further questions or suggestions on items to include in our website, feel free to contact us to let us know. Thanks for visiting Business Research Guide!